City and Chelsea don't have the best academies in my opinion, in the time that they've been in 3 Youth Cup finals, we've established 2 players (Rashford and Lingard) in the first team with McTominay doing well, TFM doing well on loan and Tuanzebe could also establish himself in the first team. Who has actually played consistent games for Chelsea and City that came through their academy? No one.
Second, everyone has a different development plan. Lingard and McTominay played an age group lower so the argument of promoting players early doesn't work. The higher the age group, the more tactical the match becomes which is not always good for a player. Out of the early promoted players in City's U23s, maybe Foden and Brahim will make it but I think more players from our U23s and U18s will establish themselves in the first team than from City's even though they have 16 and 17 year olds in there and winning.
If you look at the players coming through the academy, we've been the best of the top clubs in nurturing talent.
Honestly, I don't see any academies in the country as strong as theirs throughout all age groups, and it's all good you naming players in Rashford and Lingard, but as I said Rashford wouldn't have got his chance if it wasn't for injury, also although Lingard being a player I like, he's only really now catching form at 25 years old. As for McTominay I have nothing against him, yeah he's doing OK but is he really regarded as a top talent, and if he wasn't 6'4 would he even get a whiff of first team football? Realistically he fits Mourinho's profile for a CM. Also, I was talking in terms of producing top talent, Just off head I can name at least 6 players that made full international debuts for their respective countries that graduated Chelsea's academy in the last year.
It's all good TFM doing well at Palace but with the injury record of our defence he should defo have been given a chance this season at United, he's proved he's good enough, same goes for Tuanzebe, there's no point in hyping up talent if they never really gonna get a looking, Axel spent the first half of the season on the fringes of the first team, not sure how much he featured with the 23's but if that was the case why didn't they facilitate a loan move for him in the summer.Surely that would have better suited his developing, honestly I dont know what je'd be learning from Smalling and Jones in training.
And I don't necessarily agree with your 2nd point there, because if I recall correctly Lingard was 14 in an England u17 squad at one point, and regularly went to tournaments with older age groups in the academy despite his small size, and if we're talking about a player being introduced to different tactics is that not a part of the whole learning curve. How are they gonna learn if they aren't introduced to it
Also I used Frazier Campbell as an example for a reason, he was very highly rated whilst in our academy, played every age group from England u16 -21s but never really reached the heights that he should have, whereas with Rashford he didn't make a breakthrough in the England camp until his breakthrough season with United. Was it down to better player management I can't tell you, but one thing is for sure his talent has been nurtured CORRECTLY, correctly being the key word in my first statement.